Businesses with Too Many Rules Are Inhibiting Employee Productivity

Employees who are given engaging work and the freedom to use their own initiative remain productive, research finds

Unnecessary rules and procedures, inefficient resources and office politics were named as the top three obstacles to productivity by UK employees, in a survey by Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The research, which featured over 2,000 employees, found that unnecessary rules and a lack of resources were the two biggest barriers to productivity – each named by 28% of respondents.

Office politics was named as the third biggest productivity obstacle by 24% of UK workers.

Conversely, the main productivity stimulators named by employees were “interesting work” (40%), the ability to use their initiative (39%) and being matched with tasks that complement their skill set (25%).

According to the survey, employee engagement plays a big part in keeping a business’ productivity up – more disengaged employees report that they are less productive (17%) than those who are inspired by their work (3%).

Claire McCartney, research adviser at the CIPD, commented:

“Improving productivity is an ongoing, long-term project for the UK, but in the shorter term, employers can help employees use their skills and ideas by focusing on developing leaders and line managers who empower rather than control staff and by designing jobs which provide sufficient autonomy.

“There’s undoubtedly a mismatch of skills existing in the UK workforce, and we can see here how damaging over-qualification and skills mismatches can be to areas such as employee engagement, long-term retention and, of course, productivity.”

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